


Tigers, oh my!

by Larkafree



Category: Supernatural
Genre: 200th EpiCsode Tribute, AU, Adorable tigers, Alternate Universe - Animals, Bengal Tiger, Caspian Tiger, Fluff, Losing the will to live, M/M, Majestic Extinct Tiger, Sparkly fluff, Tiger Castiel, Tiger Dean, Tiger Sam, Tiger Towels Inspired, Tigers, alternative universe, rare tiger
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-12
Updated: 2015-02-02
Packaged: 2018-02-25 02:44:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 8,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2605673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Larkafree/pseuds/Larkafree
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean and Sam are Bengal tigers, wandering the desert of Eurasia. Dean finds a (believed to be extinct) white Caspian tiger and falls in love at first sight, only to discover his angelic tiger is a dude. Dean/Castiel</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. She's a he! Awkward!

**Author's Note:**

> In honour of the Epic 200th Episode airing tonight I gift the world with fluffy awesomeness. Enjoy!

It was just another day in the mangroves surrounding Chimboy Lake, in Uzbekistan. Dean was lounging in the sun, taking in the warm breeze as he watches his brother Sammy play with his food. The younger Bengal tiger often taunted his kills, no clue why. Dean, on the other hand, prefers to kill and eat, fast and to the point. He allowed the devilish behaviour purely because he was the only family he had. Most tigers were solitary animals, only interacting with other tigers if there was lots of food in the area, but Dean and Sam were always close, even as cubs. It was unnatural according to their mother but she let it go on as most loving parents would.

Now both tigers were adults and still keeping a close bond. They left their mother a few years ago, to make it on their own, seeing the world, as much as they could. Normal felines would establish a territory and defend it but not these felines, they rather keep moving, as if they were searching for something or someone.

It was a very warm day so Dean decides to let Sammy annoy his captured hare a little longer before telling him to just end the thing's suffering. The beautiful golden tiger got to his feet, stretching out his back, long claws digging into the Earth beneath them before he turns his head to chuckle at his brother, "Sammy, don't play with your food or it might fight back and win. And we can't have that pretty little face of yours messed up. What will the prey think?"

The larger golden tiger shook his head as he nipped at the rabbit's hind quarter, teasingly. "I'm just bored. We've been here for close to seven nights and all there is to eat is small prey. I want something bigger, harder to catch."

Dean flexes his sharp claws again, digging into the packed earth before swishing his tail and heading for the shoreline to take a quick dip in the lake, hoping it would cool him off. He dunked his head into the cool, crisp water, sighing at the temperature change. He could hold his breath for pretty long so he decided to take a little walk along the lake bottom to pass some time and look for some fish to keep Sammy happy, hey at least it wasn't a rodent.

As Dean comes up for air he sees a disturbance in the lake not far off. Most large animals knew when a tiger was in the area and kept away, in hopes of living another day, which was rather inconvenient for eating. The golden cat swims elegantly towards the disturbance.

As he gets closer he notices the disturbance is another animal and the thing is smaller than him so he could totally take it on, although he hasn't seen any white animals in this area before. He ducks low in the water, only his face breaks the surface as he sneaks up on his prey. His huge paws glide him through the water easily, barely making a disturbance, allowing for good hunting in the water.

The white animal, Dean can't get a good look at it just yet makes for the shoreline, the same shoreline that Sammy and he are lounging on, but down a few miles. Dean picks up his speed, not wanting his dinner to get away, but stops in mid-paw swipe when the animal emerges from the cool water to reveal a tiger, a white tiger! Dean's jaw drops.

The smaller white tiger walks very proudly up the sandy shore, not shaking out its coat until it's up near a tree.

Dean swears he's in love. The tiger is amazingly beautiful; he can't stop staring at her. He finally snaps out of his daze when the tiger makes for the treeline, about to disappear. He splashes frantically, trying to get out of the water as fast as he can, not caring if the other tiger notices, actually hoping that she does.

The white angel of a tiger does hear the noise and bares its teeth to the surprise intrusion.

Just as Dean is running up the embankment he's hit with a scent, a strong scent. It stops him for a second. That second is all it takes for the other tiger to get away.

Dean stands dumbfounded halfway to the treeline. The beautiful angel of a tiger isn't a female but a male.


	2. Why Can't He Take a Hint?!

Dean has a split second to make his decision, pursue the intriguing white male tiger or return to Sammy and never speak of this to a soul. He gulps, setting his broad shoulders before taking off after the angelic tiger.

He catches up to the tiger not far into the treeline. "Hey, you," he growls, catching the tiger by a huge hollowed out tree.

"What do you want?" The white tiger snarks back.

"Whoa dude, just wanted to talk. I have never seen a white tiger before. Are you from around here?" Dean edges closer to the other feline, slowly, carefully. That last thing Dean needs is to piss this tiger off and get into a fight.

"No, I'm from out west, the Caspian Sea to be exact. All my family was killed and I have been wandering east since then."

"Cool, I mean that sucks monkey balls…" He trails off, hoping for some more information. "I'm Dean, by the way."

The majestic white tiger huffs out his name in response. "Castiel, yeah, I like my solidarity so if you don't mind." The white tiger ducks his head down as a farewell and turns to enter his makeshift home inside the hollowed out tree.

Dean stands by the entrance, confused. It takes him not more than a minute to disregard the farewell and follow him anyways. "Hey, if you are lonely you can chill with us."

Castiel is lying near the back wall of the tree. He lifts his head from his paw and growls at the intruder, "us?"

"Yeah," Dean lets his tongue hang out as he bows his front paws to the tiger and lies down, "me and my baby brother Sammy. We were sunbathing a few miles down shore from here, but I got too hot and went for a swim."

"I see." He stands up and tries to push past the golden tiger blocking his exit.

Dean stands up and follows him back out, not taking the dismissal.

When Castiel turns his head back to growl, baring his razor sharp teeth Dean gasps at the sight, this being the first time he's been this close to the white tiger in natural light. The crystal blue of the tiger's eyes is stunning, to say the least. Dean loses his train of thought and lets Castiel stalk back the way they came, heading for the lake.

Castiel sighs when he notices the tiger is still following him. "What do I have to do or say to get you to leave me alone?"

Dean ponders his answer for a second before chuckles, "Not too much you can do once I decide I wanna be friends with someone. It's near impossible to break that."

Castiel just flops down on the dirt with a huff, defeated.

Dean noses Castiel in the side to get the tiger to look at him.

"Come meet Sammy, he'll be thrilled to meet you. He gets bored easily, but he's super smart."

Castiel rolls his shoulders as he gets to his feet and slowly follows Dean, hoping to sneak away quickly. As Dean leads his new friend towards Sammy he notices the white tiger is falling behind and stops to wait for him.

Castiel groans when Dean won't let him fall back and stalk away. He just might have to meet this brother after all.


	3. Lets Play Hunter, What's the Worst that Could Happen?

A few months later  
\------------------------------  
Castiel and Dean are enjoying a playful game of 'hunter' on a bright and sunny day just east of Volgograd, Russia, using the lush forest for cover. They loved this game, Sammy not so much but he still played it, mostly to keep Dean happy. It was Dean's turn to hide and Castiel to find him. The golden tiger was a master at this and knew just where to hide so as to blend into the brush around him and not get caught too quickly.

Castiel tried to draw the game out more, letting Dean think he was an amazingly well hider, when in fact Castiel has become quite attuned to his mate's scent and could find it nearly a mile away. He was purposely heading the wrong direction to make Dean think he was winning.

Dean was watching from his hiding place in a bush, snickers quietly when Castiel went the wrong way. He waited for his mate to come back his way, when he didn't he started to worry. His paranoia became full-blown when he heard a growl and yelp in the distance. After nearly a year together he knew his mate's growl and this was the most ear splitting sound of them all. Dean ran from his bush, making bounds across the dense forest, speeding towards his soul-mate. The entire time he ran his mind was making outrageous assumptions as to why Castiel screamed like that. Ranging from he fell into a sink hole, to he got cornered by a large crocodile, to he got hurt and finally that a poacher got him in a trap, getting shot fell into that category as well.

By the time Dean made it to the area where Castiel's scent was the strongest the tiger was nowhere to be smelt. There was a strange smell lingering though. It was metallic and dirty, Dean had no clue as to what it was, but he knew without a doubt it was not good. He growled deeply in his throat, calling out to his lover, but getting nothing in return. Dean clawed at the dirt beneath his paws in anger and screamed for Sam. He heard nothing but the sounds of the forest for close to two minutes before the faint sound of tree branches breaking was heard to the left of him. Sam emerged moments later, panting, clearly out of breath from the fastest run he's done in a forest in years.

"Dean, what's wrong?"

"Cass, I can't smell him!" Dean searches the area frantically, hoping there's a clue somewhere.

Sam watches the panicked expression on his brother's face and knows this is serious and needs immediate attention. He uses his nose to sniff out the different scents in the area and comes across a leather glove lying behind a bush and a boot print. He knows it was humans just by the reek of sweat and urine.

He glares, "humans!"

Dean growls deep in his throat. "Fuck!" He takes a swipe at the closest tree, leaving claw marks across the bark.


	4. Tigers Are Not Fed Like a Domesticated Pet!

The last thing Castiel remembers was being thrown up into the air by some metal and hearing a bunch of hoots and hollers before everything went black on him.

He awakens inside a metal tube that smells small, judging by the concentration of sweat and laughter. He tries to sit up but can't and growls, or at least attempts to but he's so weak. He opens one eye, groggily, trying to take in his surroundings.

A strange looking animal turns its head towards him and yells something. The next thing he knows there's a sharp pain in his side and it goes dark and quiet again.

Castiel comes back to consciousness but can't risk opening his eyes again, although his nose tells him he's not in the metal tube anymore. He cracks open his left eye and sees wood, he turns his head and sits up, looking around to notice he's surrounded by wood on all sides, even above his head. A crate, he's in a damn crate, being transported somewhere. He feels his crate get jostled as he hears voices. He concentrates on what they are saying, trying to learn their language.

He feels fresh air and smells trees and sweat. His box is lifted by many arms and moved to the ground, he can tell because his paws feel grass through the holes in the crate. Suddenly the wood behind him is moved up to give him a scare. He turns to look out the opening and gasps. In front of him is trees and grass, he slowly, cautiously makes his way out of the wooden crate and looks up to growl at the thing he was carried in. He sees strange animals, standing on only their hind legs staring at him. He runs at them and tries to rip them apart in anger, but he gets stopped by an invisible force. The impact makes him dizzy as he backs away. He sits down and swats the invisible force and it makes a weird hollow 'boing' noise. Castiel just watches the movement behind the glass, growling when someone gets too close to the glass for his liking.

He spends two days sitting there, growling at it until some sort of reflective wood is put up, blocking his view. He hates it here. He misses Dean.

After the stupid mirrors are installed it takes him a few hours to find a quiet spot where he can be alone with his thoughts and not be looked at. He lies there all day and night, only moving to relieve himself by a tree. Food is brought into the area by an animal Castiel quickly learns is a human and a female judging by the scent she gives off. He doesn't move to eat it. He can smell how delicious it would be, but he can't get the energy to move. Each sunrise is more difficult to handle without his mate.

That night the woman that brings him food opens a metal tree-like thing, a gate and enters his habitat. He's so weak from refusing to eat he doesn't even growl or move. The woman slowly walks up to him, hands out in front of her, taking slow, careful steps, saying something. Castiel concentrates on her words with all his might.

"It's okay Caspian, easy boy. I just want to take a look at you. No need to bite me, right?"

Castiel huffs and swishes his tail, which doesn't take too much energy to do in his state.

As the woman gets close enough to touch the tiger Castiel growls, uninterested in what she's doing. He doesn't care anymore. He got taken away from Dean because he was too happy and life can't be too good. He should have known not to let his guard down.

The short brunette woman strokes his side gently as she runs her hand into his armpit. "So we've never officially met but I'm Meg. You are a very handsome Caspian tiger, we thought your subspecies was extinct, yet here ya are, in the fur. We are so excited to discover you, but it's not going to go well if we tell the big shots that the only known Cas tiger died from malnutrition and dehydration. Why aren't you eating and drinking?"

Castiel grunts at the nickname. It sounds like the nickname Dean gave him, but it hurts to think of Dean right now.

Meg notices the change in heatbeat at the nickname. "Cas, your name will be Cas." Meg jumps back when he hears a low rumble in the huge cat's chest. "Or your name was Cas before." The rumble intensifies and Meg lets out a chuckle, "talking to a cat, if only the other keepers could see me now." She offers the cat a small hare from her bag.

Castiel lifts his head at the scent but flops back down. She grunts. "We were on a roll there, damn it." She turns away from Castiel and talks to the wall. A minute later four men show up at the metal gate, entering the enclosure and leaning in to pick him up. One man stops and looks to Meg, "Are you sure he's not gunna attack us, he's not even sedated."

Meg sighs, "I'm not certain but we can't sedate him in his condition, his heart might give out. Just do as you're told Tyson."

The four men lift the tiger up and carry him through the gate and onto an awaiting gurney. Castiel watches as he's pushed through many corridors with bright lights that hurt his eyes and feels when the metal beneath him is used to open doors. He enters a huge room with lots of things in it. He watches helplessly as he's poked and stabbed with sharp things. A moment later he feels something cold running through him and tries to growl but nothing comes out. He closes his eyes as his side is stroked gently, it reminds him of Dean grooming him and he lets a quiet rumble start in his chest. He falls asleep to the sound of beeps and swishing.

He awakens to being back in his enclosure. He feels good, not awesome but like he can move, pounce maybe. A few hours later, after the sun has fallen he hears Meg calling to him from above. He looks up to see a slab of meat thrown his way. He growls and pounces on it ripping it to pieces but not consuming it. He goes up to a tree and tosses the shredded meat in clump and turns to urinate on it. He refuses to eat food like a pet. He hunts, that's how a tiger eats.


	5. Every Tiger Needs Their Golden Sun

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is quite sad, be warned.

Three more days pass with Castiel still refusing to eat. Once again he's nearly comatose and brought into the infirmary to be given an IV, to keep him from deteriorating further. Meg is getting concerned, she's in charge of this beautiful and rare tiger and can't seem to get it to keep itself alive. It's losing weight fast, really fast. When it was captured it weighed close to 140kg, now it's barely 115kg. If she can't get it to eat soon the WWF (World Wildlife Federation) will take custody of him and the zoo will lose the funding it was hoping for.

The Moscow Zoo was pretty large already, but with the only known Caspian Tiger tourists would flock to the zoo in the thousands, if not millions to see Cas. That is billions of dollars in prospective revenue. The mystery has to be solved. Perhaps Cas doesn't like being in captivity?

Meg has a week to get Cas to eat and physically ready to be unveiled to the world in an international news conference.

 

Two days to the deadline Meg is losing hope. Cas needs to be given a Central line to keep him on his feet and still refuses to eat. Every day she watches for the hope of change in the fading blue eyes of the white tiger and sees nothing. It seems he's empty inside, has lost the will to live and the veterinarian staff is all that's keeping him alive at this point. Neither of them can continue like this. Cas' muscles will have atrophy soon from lack of use and Meg's fighting with the thought that Cas can't be caged for the rest of his natural life, which is days at this rate. They've gotten his weight to hold at 100kg, but it dips under the triple digits depending upon the hour.

Meg knows it's getting dire; Cas is looking to his keeper for survival. She can't stand seeing such a beautiful creature losing hope. She makes a rash decision. Cas is her responsibility and no matter how much the zoo could use the money they'd get for housing the rare tiger it's not worth the animal's happiness and life. As the senior zookeeper she can organize the enclosures cleaning and feeding schedules. She makes sure no one is anywhere near the Caspian tiger's enclosure all night and purposely leaves the gate open and a clear path out of the zoo for the animal to follow. She makes sure to pump him full of nutrients so he has the energy to walk the half mile to the perimeter and be free.

She sits in her small apartment, awaiting the call that the tiger has somehow escaped. She falls asleep with the phone beside her head. She's awoken by her alarm clock buzzing. She rubs her eyes and frowns at the phone, thinking she missed the call. She makes her way into work, preparing her surprised and outraged speech. When she arrives she sees nothing out of the ordinary, no interns running around, grabbing stun guns or anything. She slowly walks to the tiger enclosure, closing the fences on her way. When she gets to the final gate she sees Cas hasn't moved. She sighs and goes about her day.

It's the last day before the deadline. She makes sure she tells Cas her plan, purposely talking to him as she checks his vital signs. The tiger lifts his head slightly but other than that nothing.

She leaves that night, making a detour to Cas' enclosure to remind him to escape through the south tower fence.

Castiel doesn't care. He wants to die. Dean was the sun for him. He can't believe how hard Dean tried to get Castiel to like him and how hard he made it for the golden tiger. He'd give anything just to see his mate once more before he died, but he knows that will never happen. Even if he does leave the zoo like the keeper tells him to there's no point because he'd never find Dean. He's sure Dean's forgotten about him by now, moved on, found a gorgeous golden Bengal female to mate with and spread his seed to. He's just a white tiger, he was never meant to have happiness. He knows that now. In his dehydrated haze he swears he sees a golden tiger come bounding towards him through the metal gate, but he's just hallucinating, he has to be.


	6. Mission: Rescue Castiel

Dean was in distress. Humans took his mate and he would stop at nothing to find him and get him back.

Sam was always smart, but Dean has the better nose. He doesn't even waste time to tell Sam where he is going. He just took off like a rocket through the forest, following the faint scent of his lover.

Sam, being the thinker gathers intelligence. He knows how to find his brother when the time comes.

Dean only stops to rest a few hours and eat quickly, small meals only so as not to weigh him down. He is on a mission and nothing on this green Earth will or can stop him. He runs east for two days before the annoying bird friend of Sam's finds him, at that point he is frustrated and has no clue what to do or where to go. That was until Thomas comes baring the news that a rare tiger such as Castiel would be kept alive and taken to a zoo and the only one in the area was the Moscow Zoo, which was close to 1,200 miles away and that was as a bird flies. Dean has to take detours, bypassing towns and populated areas to keep off the radar.

By the end of the second day Dean knows Castiel is long gone, but he has to find him. He pushes himself harder, going nearly without sleep. He reaches Moscow within three days but needs to know where this zoo is and waits for Thomas to help him out. The bird has now become useful, which is why he hasn't eaten him yet.

It doesn't take Thomas long to locate the zoo, it's on the other side of the huge city, which could be a problem, in the outskirts mainly. Dean uses his stealth skills and goes around the huge city in a day. Now they have to figure out how to get Cass out; neither of them have aposeable thumbs and that could be a real rescue stopper.

The bird is sent ahead to locate Cass. He comes back but doesn't say much at first.

"Tell me if he's okay Thomas, or I swear I'll eat you and tell Sam you never came back!"

"Well, he's there, but he's not doing too well. It looks like he's not eating and they can't seem to figure out why."

Dean growls, claws digging into the gravel beneath his feet. "Damn stubborn Cass, if he doesn't eat he'll die! Doesn't he know that?"

The bird squwacks, trying to get to a safe distance. "It looks like he's given up hope. The humans are keeping him alive by feeding him through tubes."

Dean paces the forest clearing, trying to figure out how to get to Cass before he dies or gets moved. It takes a few hours for Dean to decide to toss discretion to the wind and just go after Cass. That night Dean tries to jump the fence, but can't get high enough, then he digs under the fence and curses when the thing goes under ground as well.

Defeated Dean retreats back to the forest for safety and to rethink his strategy plan, if he even has one at this point.

Meanwhile Thomas comes back with a daily report on Castiel's health status.

It's been fourteen nights since Castiel and Dean have been separated and the golden tiger is losing hope that he'll get to Castiel in time. It's a frantic race against the clock and Dean has never been good with races that he can't guarantee he'll win.

That night as he paces the perimeter fence he notices a gate is open, but there's no way it'd be that easy, it's a trap, it has to be! The logical part of his brain tells him not to do it.

By the second night of the same gate being open he throws caution to the wind and barrels through the gate, keeping to the shadows though as he passes many gates, all locked, he follows the unlocked gates, getting confused or lost once or twice but pads down a long corridor to what looks like a forest at the end.

As he goes through the last gate and enters the forest area he sees a white lump over by a rock, it has black stripes and the chest is moving but that can't be Cass, not his Cass, can it? He pounces towards the fur and stops just short of the animal. Yes it's a tiger, a white tiger, but he smells all wrong. He nudges the hind leg then moves to nuzzle the face, knowing this might be his Cass. He found him after all.


	7. Knight in Shining Armour

Dean can't seem to get Cass to get up though. He pushes his mate, pawing at his face. "Cass! Get up babe, we need to get out of here."

"Why? Why, should I move Dean? You're just the part of my brain that's still fighting, hoping I can move on." Castiel shuts his eyes and whimpers.

Dean can't figure out what's wrong with Cass, but if he can't get him to move he'll stay and protect him. He settles down beside Castiel and presses his body against his to keep him warm, so Castiel knows he's not hallucinating, he falls asleep quickly, cuddled up to his mate.

He's awoken by shouting and screams. He opens his eyes in a flash and is crouched in a protective stance.

The morning enclosure cleaners are shouting to one another to get the boss, Meg.

The curly-haired brunette spent the night beside the phone, again and fell asleep, again. She goes about her morning routine, again, fine tuning her outraged speech. When she arrives to the employee parking lot she's met with a security guard, rushing her out of her car and into the facility. She drops her lunchbag by the fence and goes rushing to the top of the enclosure and gasps at the sight below her. It's not as she thought. She was excepting to find the habitat empty, not to find an additional tiger in it.

The guards look to her for clarification on how to proceed. She watches the golden tiger for a few moments before she nods to the supervisor, indicating for him to tranquilize the beast. It looks awfully huge and extremely pissed off. As the guard aims the gun and releases the trigger the tiger dodges the dart, as if he knew it was coming. The dart grazes Cas, who's in no condition to take a sedative. She calls it off and goes for a more hands-on personal approach to get the huge tiger away from Cas and restrained.

Dean is very annoyed that these humans think it's okay to try to kill him for protecting what's his. As a man gets close to the gate Dean lunges for him and takes a good chunk of leg with his front paw.

Meg regrets that decision immediately. She tells them all to back off and let this new tiger calm down, an agitated tiger is a dangerous tiger, and the fact that their prized tiger is weak and no one can get close to either of them is a good indication to leave them to their own for a bit and just observe.

Dean backs up, reaching Cass' hind leg and drops down on his stomach, watching the treeline with suspicion, after an hour of not being disturbed by anything he turns and nudges Cass. "Babe, get up, Cass it's really me."

Cass feels groggy as he opens his eyes and sees orange. "Dean?"

"Oh thank the sun! You remember me." He paws at Cass' IV and snorts with disdain.

Castiel looks at the tube and huffs. "It's so I don't die."

"That's crazy. We have to get it out."

Cass growls, "it can't come out without humans."

"Nonsense!" Dean lunges for the clear tube and Cass pulls away.

"You could kill me. I'd bleed to death."

"Fine, whatever."

Dean nudges Castiel to his feet. The white tiger stands, shakily. Dean uses his body weight to keep Cass from falling over and helps him walk to the little pond and take a drink. Castiel leans down but has no real strength and face plants the surface, making a splash.

Dean chuckles ,he can't stop himself. He regains his composure only to push Castiel into the pond fully, and jumps in after him, to keep him a float. It takes Cass a few minutes to get acquainted with the chilly water. But soon he's following Dean to the other end of the pond.

"Cass, you've lost so much weight you look very sick. Are you sure they aren't hurting you here?"

Cass shakes his head, "No, I just thought I'd never see you again and couldn't stand that sad thought so I may have given up, I'm sorry."

Dean swats Cass' face tenderly, "you should know I'd follow you anywhere. I'm the one who's sorry. I should have gotten here sooner, but those fences were tricky. Did you know all the gates to you were wide open?"

Cass shrugs, "Meg left them open so I could leave, but I couldn't find the energy."

"Well, I won't let you get like that again. They'll have to kill me to get me away from you." Dean licks his mate's cheek, grooming him. The pair swims to the shore and Dean helps Cass back up to a shady tree to dry off.

"Dean, where's Sam?"

Dean licks his nose as he looks to the sky. "He's coming, just a few days behind me, I think."

Meg lets a huge chunk of meat be stealthily dropped by a tree and waits.

Dean's the first to perk up his ears and nose to the air. He gets up and searches out the food and snatches up the raw venison steak, bringing it to their spot in the shade. He tears a chunk out of it and chews it quickly before tossing it to Cass.

"If you don't get your strength up I just might let you drown in that pond."

Castiel eyes Dean closely but shrugs and takes a huge bite out of it and swallows it.

Meg watches the pair for an hour before she's called away on other business, mostly the impending news conference scheduled. As she observes them she notices something the golden tiger wasn't being over aggressive about being tranq'ed but was more or less protecting Cas like his… and it finally clicks into place. Cas was separated from his mate and refused to eat because he was depressed. Meg assigns an intern to keep watch over her tiger, now tigers.

She now has a new hurdle to overcome. She knows how to get the Caspian tiger to eat, but it's got a price tag, housing a second tiger in the enclosure. She crunches the numbers over the next day.

By the end of the second day of Dean and Castiel being reunited Cass is doing much better, eating and drinking and it looks like regaining some of his muscle mass. The golden tiger won't let anyone close to them though. Meg is contemplating having it tranquilized just so they can check on Cas, but Cas doesn't seem to want to be separated from his mate either so she lets it go, for now.


	8. Dude Acts Like a Lady

Meg is fairly certain that Cas has regained enough strength to be tranq'ed and calls up the team to get the two tigers sleeping.

As soon as the Bengal tiger sees the guys with the guns the animal goes into protective mode, again, unceremoniously backing Cas into a corner as it lets loose a loud roar to show its uneasiness about the guns.

Meg watches from the fence, wishing she could explain to the tigers why they need to do this. A thought occurs to her while standing there. The woman hopes that Cas' mate is not pregnant, they would need to take special precautions in that situation. Meg rushes at the gate, yelling, "stop!"

The closest guy with a gun looks up from his scope aimed at the Bengal. "What? Why?"

"She might be carrying cubs, just wait a second!"

At the assumption that Dean is female he roars, pushing off from the packed dirt, rushing at the gate. His teeth mangle the wooden facade to the metal gate.

Meg thinks this is confirmation that Cas' mate is confirming her suspicions and is in fact with cubs and wanting to protect herself. She calls the keepers back so they can come up with a new plan.

\-----------------

Once Dean is certain the humans with the guns are gone he goes to check on Castiel, whose still in the corner where Dean pushed him.

"I'm sorry babe. I'm not letting them take me away from you, ever again!"

"I know that Dean, but I just don't think that's what they are doing."

"Bastards."

"I don't think we have a choice if they want to they can."

"Over my dead body and did you hear that bitch, saying I'm female and pregnant!"

"Well in their defence you are acting like a protective mother of her mate and unborn cubs."

Dean makes a gasping noise as he paws at Cass' face playfully. He takes a moment to agree though. "Fine, I am but how do I correct them then?"

"Stop fighting and they can get close enough to see for themselves that you are in fact all male and not pregnant."

"But... Son of a bitch!"

"I doubt Meg would risk upsetting me by taking you away. She wanted me to eat and got worried that I wasn't. She's less worried now. Dean, just trust me."

 --------------

Meg gives the tigers three hours to calm down before she sets her new plan into motion.

This time neither of the tigers become aggressive to the armed zookeepers, the only movement is the Bengal tiger lifting his head, smelling the air. The tiger turns its head towards the Caspian tiger and makes a sound similar to 'maw' before it gets to its feet, turning away from the fences and flops down with a groan.

At first this behaviour concerns Meg but then she notices that Cas is staring at her and the guns. That's when it clicks, Cas told his mate that this is the only way.

Meg gives the signal and the guy closest to her aims and lands a tranq dart right in the tiger's left hind leg. Then the second dart finds its target in Cas' right shoulder blade, both tigers pass out quickly.

The zookeeper rushes in to check their prized Caspian tiger, sighing when his vitals are steady. The large cats are transferred onto gurneys and wheeled into the medical center of the facility.

Meg heads straight for the on-duty veternarian, "tell me how far along the Bengal is ASAP. I'm sure the Directors will want to know."

The redheaded Vet takes one look at both tigers, laying on their sides, tongues hanging out of their mouths. She laughs loudly.

"What's so funny?"

"This tiger right here?" Charlie points at the orange Bengal closest to them.

"Yes, her." Meg grits her teeth and nods.

"Hate to rain on your parade here, head tiger keeper but she's a he."

"What? No!"

"Both of these tigers are male."

"How can you tell so fast?"

Charlie chuckles as he lifts the Bengal's leg and points to the quite obvious male anatomy between the tiger's legs. "Those are called balls and look." She moves to the Caspian and shows Meg Cas' balls too.

"Umm...she, I mean he, never got close to anyone to let us get a good look."

"And the fact that they are the same size wasn't a good enough clue? How about the forepaw size? These are all quick indictators that these are males."

" That's not right, tigers are not homosexual."

"Well, look who's being judgey. You think only humans are homosexual? As a Lesbian I find that slightly offensive. Any animal has the potential to be homosexual, it's not our place to form such close-minded opinions."

"Yeah, okay, sorry just get started on this male's examination."

Charlie grins widely, "already got my assistant on it. We need a name for him too."

"Well I was going to say 'Sabina'(Roman clan Female) but I think 'Saber'(fierce) is much better suited now."

After an extensive physical evaluation, with blood being drawn, measurements being taken and even prints are taken. Meg reluctantly accepts the paperwork with a big 'MALE' under gender.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the second to last chapter.


	9. Even a Tiger can Appreciate the Classics!

That night there's a disturbance by the perimeter fence. The intern on nights, Jess, is called to the guard post. What she sees makes her gasp and chuckle at the same time. There's an adult Bengal tiger throwing rabbits at the fence from his mouth. It's almost like the tiger is playing with the animals. As the small blonde woman gets closer to the fence to investigate if the rabbits are alive or not she catches the attention of the tiger. The huge hazel eyes are breathtaking. She hasn't ever seen a wild tiger this close in her life. She has no clue as to why she sticks her hand through the bars but she does and the tiger growls then walks up to her hand. She pulls her hand back to her side of the bars as the huge cat approaches her, but the cat shows no real aggression.

She holds her hand flat against the bars as the tiger sniffs her. He sits on his hind legs as if a trained pet and waits. The young intern gets a crazy idea; she remembers Meg going on about how the Caspian tiger had a mate outside, maybe this was a tiger from that family as well. He did look passive enough after all. She unlocks the gates to the Caspian enclosure, leaving the perimeter gate for last and makes sure she's out of harm's way when she lets this huge cat enter the facility.

Sam chuckles at his inventiveness to get humans' attention. He does like the human that comes to investigate though, she smiles and smells nice, like trees and fruit. He waits while she runs off and comes back. As the gate opens he laughs to himself. Too bad Dean didn't think to just ring the doorbell?

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Meg was none too pleased by Jess in the morning to find her once solo enclosure to now be overrun with Bengal tigers.

The new mysterious Bengal was much more docile than the Caspian's mate. He was tranquilized much easier once discovered. Meg had to bang her head against a metaphorical wall when she found out the new tiger was male as well. The interesting thing was the interaction between the two Bengals.

Naturally male tigers are territorial and don't like other males in the area, yet in this interest and very unique pride, family, it consisted of three adult males and no females. Meg does wonder how Saber (Dean) found Cas and also how this new tiger found them as well.

Meg sees the lab results from the new tiger and is shocked to see that the two Bengals are related and siblings by the genetics listed. She has to grin at the name the Vet gave him, Kato(masculine), apparently this tiger was huge, like 340 kilograms heavy, one and a half metres high at the shoulder and shockingly almost four meters in length. He was a monster in size.

Two brothers and a male mate, if Meg didn't witness it with her own eyes she'd never had believed the story. She has to laugh when a small bird lands by her while she sits on a zoo bench eating her lunch a few hours after getting the lab results. The bird drops pieces of paper and starts swquacking at her.

She picks up the four pieces of paper and looks at them. The first one says in different letter sizes and fonts 'Castiel', at first Meg thinks it's weird but she does remember seeing the same bird on numerous times sitting in a tree of the Caspian and Bengal's enclosure. She sifts through the other papers and laughs at the names on the others, 'Dean' and 'Sam' are on two but the last one is the oddest. It oddly enough says the most, 'family and love forever'.

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Dean was the most suspicious of the three on what was going on. Castiel was just happy that when he woke up after being tranq'ed that Dean was still in the enclosure, everything over and above that was good too, but Sam showing up and being led to them was awesome. Dean thought it was hilarious that he was tranquilized in of all places the butt and brought it up regularly to Cass' annoyed groans.

Meg knew she was pushing her luck proposing to the board of Directors that in order to keep the only known Caspian tiger housed at the zoo required that they house an adult orange male Bengal tiger in the same enclosure. When the second adult orange Bengal tiger showed up at the perimeter Meg knew it was too much. She was faced with a dilemma; the zoo already had a family of Bengal tigers, adult male, adult female and two female baby cubs. It was odd but understandable that the Caspian tiger would have a mate, but it was harder to explain to her bosses that the two males were a package deal and there would be no baby cubs in the future from the pair. Zoos are in the business of breeding and preserving endangered species and a homosexual pairing resulted in no genetic future.

The zookeeper was sitting in the Caspian/Bengal enclosure, listening to music on her iPod, eating her lunch, no meat just fruit when Kato(Sam) came wondering up to her. Most of the other zookeepers thought she was crazy for being in the habitats with the captive animals but she was only really worried to be in proximity of the smaller Bengal. He was napping in the shade or at least he appeared to be napping but the way his breathing wasn't shallow like he was actually sleeping gave her just enough incentive to keep her mind on where she was.

The larger of the two Bengals was nosing his way into her lunch bag when Meg has an impulsive idea. She takes her oversized noise cancelling headphones off her ears and slowly puts them over the Bengal's ears and waits. It takes about ten seconds for a reaction and not really the one she was expecting. Meg couldn't help herself when the song 'Eye of the Tiger' started and she saw Kato or Sam, which ever rummaging in her bag, which she made sure had nothing interesting to a tiger inside she wanted to see what he thought of the song.

Sam paws at the offensive thing covering his ears and growls as it comes off. The noise coming from the black object is so torturous that he also feels the need to snort, shaking his head, hoping to get rid of the noise in his head.

Cas lifts his head to see what Sam is making a fuss about and laughs when he sees Sam snorting and making a scene in front of Meg. Dean gets up from his napping spot to investigate.

Sam waits for Dean to get close enough before he explains. "She has a torture device; it makes music and not my kind of music either."

"Really? Cool, what was it?"

Meg was laughing, enjoying the tiger's playful display at his dislike of her music choice when he noticed Saber or Dean, as she thought his name was, coming towards her. She unplugged the headphones, grabbing her bottle of water before retreating behind the gate. She watched the two tigers from the safety of the fence. After a minute of the two Bengals growling she notices the smaller of the two, Dean lean his head down and noses the discarded headphones. Now she's wishing she had enough time to grab those as well, her lunch bag is replaceable but those headphones were not cheap and now the aggressive tiger is most likely going to maul them to pieces in anger. Her curiosity spikes when she notices he's not destroying them but is trying to get his ear close enough to hear what Sam heard. She looks down at her iPod and chuckles, Sam's not a fan of classic rock but Dean might be. She runs to the offices and grabs her boombox, laughing at the look of one of the interns she passes.

She places the boombox speakers facing the tiger enclosure as she cues up the song. She cranks the volume to the maximum as she watches. It takes no more than five seconds for Dean's ears to perk up, he lets the headphones drop to the ground and roars. At first Meg thinks it's an angry roar but then she sees Sam walk to Cas and flop down, which is not typical for an aggressive defence. She looks back to Dean and laughs. If she didn't know that these tigers were from the wild she's said the tiger was dancing. His paws are clawing the Earth in time with the music. She puts the song on repeat just to see what will happen. After the second time the song repeats a few zookeepers come to see what all the noise is and join in the audience. It's Jess who suggests a different song just to see what the tiger does. Meg puts on a country song, 'God Blessed Texas', Dean snorts and lies down, but Cas bobs his head. Jess puts her iPhone on the dock and plays 'Heat of the Moment' both Bengals react to that song.

This display attracts a pretty good crowd and Meg gets requests to get the tigers to dance again the next day. She reluctantly agrees, thinking this feel like the tigers are like trained pets, performing an act for their dinner.

\--------------

After nearly a week of discussion amongst the zoo officials a conclusion is finally reached. The Caspian tiger is a remarkable discovery but the cost required to keep the rare tiger is too high for the Russian zoo. Meg argued that separating the tigers would not end well; Cas would refuse to eat again. Luckily Meg got in touch with the World Wildfire Federation. They agreed to aid in locating a good area to relocate the very unique pride. Mostly the group was interested in the discovery of the thought to be extinct Caspian tiger and wanted to know if they were any more.

All three tigers were low-jacked with a small GPS microchip medically inserted under the fur between the shoulder blades. Even though tigers are quite unlikely to lead them to more it was still a possibility and that was what the WWF were hoping for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I suck at endings, sorry. I hope this is good enough.


End file.
